A Valentine
by Clara Barton
Summary: Forced to wait outside in his underwear when the fire alarm goes off, freezing his ass off, Trowa figures out something very important. Challenge prompt response for luvsanime02


Last of the November challenge prompts! This one is for luvsanime02, who requested the: person A is outside their dorms in the middle of the night due to the fire alarm, and person B is also there in their underwear?

I promise it's not going to turn into some bizarrely angsty story where the building burns down and everyone dies in a gruesome fire.

Warnings: fluff, humor, language

Pairings: 2x3

A Valentine

"Trowa, come on, get up."

He rolled over, away from the voice and tried to burrow deeper into the blankets, tried to shut out the incessant wail of the fire alarm and the impatient voice of his roommate, Quatre.

Quatre made a frustrated noise and tugged at the blankets. Trowa tugged back.

"Trowa - get up we have to go outside!"

"It's just another fucking drill," Trowa muttered, keeping his eyes squeezed tightly shut. He refused to give in. Refused to get up and stand outside for two hours in the cold _again_ just so the RAs could use the excuse to look in their rooms for contraband.

The door to their dorm room banged open.

"Outside. Right now. There's a fire."

It was the voice of Treize, their RA, and he sounded pissed off, as usual.

Trowa groaned and gave in.

He opened his eyes and pushed back the blankets and got out of bed.

Quatre looked relieved.

"Move it!" Treize shouted from out in the hall.

Quatre rolled his eyes and grabbed a sweater and tossed it towards Trowa.

Trowa caught it and stepped into his shoes and looked around for his jeans, but Treize was back.

"Outside, right now," he growled and he stood in the doorway and waited for Trowa and Quatre to leave the room.

Treize smirked at Trowa's appearance, at his shoes, his sweater and his black boxers and Trowa glared back. He resisted the urge to give Treize the finger, only just, and mostly only just because Quatre grabbed his arm and pulled him outside while Treize walked off in the other direction.

Once outside, Trowa promised himself that from now on he would sleep wearing pants. It was fucking _cold_.

He shivered and glared at the people who glanced at his bare legs and smirked.

He wasn't surprised when Quatre drifted off to look for Relena, the girl of his dreams who lived on the floor above them, so instead Trowa stood by himself, irritated and cold and he stared at the dorm and tried to see where the fire - ah. There it was.

Smoke was billowing out of the common room/ kitchen area. There weren't any flames or the glow of a fire, but it was clear that there _had_ been a fire.

"Nice night to stand outside and freeze your ass off, huh?"

Trowa turned to see Duo walk up to him. Duo, dressed in a sweater and jeans and boots. Duo, who looked warm and cozy as hell. Duo, who was looking at Trowa's ass with too much concern to be entirely casual. Duo, who lived across the hall from Trowa and watched Constantine with him every week in the common room. Duo, who liked to put his arm across the back of the couch and hadn't moved away when Trowa leaned back against his arm. Duo, who two weeks ago had started sitting closer to the center of the couch and hadn't moved away when Trowa sat close enough for their thighs to be touching.

Trowa arched an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry," Duo shrugged. "I'd offer you my pants but I don't have anything on underneath and… I'd take a bullet for you or whatever, Tro, but I'm not going to freeze my balls off."

Trowa rolled his eyes, but he felt his lips twitch into a smirk.

"I'm going to hold you to that, next time I have to face a firing squad."

Duo nodded solemnly.

"Absolutely. Just call me up and I'll be there."

They stared at each other and Trowa felt his heart skip a beat. Actually skip a beat and he felt simultaneously pathetic and excited. Duo always did this to him, always made him feel like a lovesick teenager, and as much as Trowa wanted to resent him for it, he couldn't. He also couldn't figure out if it was just him - if he was the only one who looked forward to their Friday nights in the common room, almost cuddling on the couch, if he was the only one who shivered when their bare skin touched or their fingers tangled together when they both reached for the popcorn or cookies they shared.

"Apparently some idiot set the kitchen on fire while baking."

Trowa turned to see Heero, Duo's roommate, approaching them with a scowl on his face.

"Really? At two in the morning?" Trowa asked.

Heero nodded.

"Zechs said there were burnt cookies in the oven and oatmeal, cranberries and chocolate chips on the counter. Said it looked like whoever did it tried to put out the fire but the alarms started going off. And now we're all stuck out here. Until the fire department arrives and clears the dorm."

Heero was looking at Duo, glaring at him and Duo glared back.

Trowa raised an eyebrow. Those two usually fought, usually bickered the way that Trowa imagined siblings usually did, or boyfriends. He'd thought they were into each other from almost the first day of move in last semester, when they argued about who slept where and Duo had just suggested they share one bed and how much room they would save and Heero had actually paused to consider it before deciding against it.

He - wait.

Oatmeal, chocolate chips and cranberries?

Cathy send him those cookies, in her monthly care packages, and Trowa had never met anyone else who liked them, never met anyone who didn't scowl and try to pick out either the cranberries or the chocolate chips.

Until Duo.

Until he'd brought a tin of cookies to their Constantine night and offered Duo one and Duo had seemed hesitant, had arched an eyebrow but tried one and proclaimed them weird but delicious and Trowa had shared them with him ever since.

Trowa looked over at Duo, but Duo was blushing and looking away, staring up at the sky.

Trowa looked at Heero. Heero rolled his eyes, muttered 'idiot' under his breath, and walked away.

"So…" Duo rocked on the balls of his feet. "How'd you do on your French test today?"

Trowa shrugged.

"Pretty good."

Duo nodded.

"Good. That's good."

"Duo -"

"Oh, thank fuck. The firefighters are here."

They watched as a fire engine pulled to the curb and a line of yellow clad men trooped into the building.

"Probably won't be too long now and then you can find some pants," Duo muttered.

Trowa nodded.

"So… any plans for the big day tomorrow?"

Trowa arched an eyebrow. Big day?

"Valentine's Day," Duo clarified.

"Oh. No. Of course not."

"Of course not," Duo agreed, and then he frowned. "Why of course not?"

Trowa shrugged.

"Because there's no one for me to have plans with."

"Oh. Yeah. Of course. Of course not," he added and he rocked on his feet again. "Yep. Of course not."

"I still have some cookies left from the last batch Cathy sent me, Duo."

"What?" Duo looked at him with wild eyes.

"If you wanted cookies - I still have some. From last time."

"Oh. Uh… good to know."

Trowa frowned. It had to have been Duo baking the cookies, so why was he so nonplussed by Trowa's offer to share the rest of the ones he already had?

Oh.

_Oh._

Trowa suddenly understood and he couldn't help but stare at Duo.

"Do you have plans for tomorrow?" He asked.

"Me?" Duo snorted and shook his head. "No, no of course not. Why would I have any plans or -"

The other students were walking back to the dorm, going back inside and the firefighters were leaving.

"Looks like we can go back inside," Duo said. "And you can get some pants."

"You're obsessed with me putting pants on."

"No, I just - I mean, you've got to be cold right? And you don't want people staring at your ass and -"

"I don't?"

"Uh, do you?"

Trowa shrugged.

"Some people, maybe."

Duo frowned.

"Okay. Um… sure." He started to walk back to the dorm and Trowa rolled his eyes and followed.

Duo hesitated outside of his dorm room and gave Trowa an apologetic look.

"Sorry you had to stand out in the cold."

Trowa shrugged.

"Wasn't for too long."

Duo nodded.

"Yeah," he agreed.

Heero walked up and looked between them. He arched an eyebrow at Trowa. Trowa stared back, not entirely sure what Heero was trying to ask.

Heero rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Duo -"

"Heero, shut up."

Heero glared at his roommate and Duo glared back, but then Heero pushed past him into their dorm room.

Trowa gave Duo a questioning look.

Duo shrugged.

"He thinks I'm an idiot."

"I noticed."

"That I'm an idiot?"

"No, you aren't an idiot," Trowa had to smirk at Duo's offended tone. "Dense, maybe, but not an idiot."

Duo narrowed his eyes.

"You think I'm dense."

Trowa shrugged.

"I think you'd have to be dense if you didn't think I liked you. I mean, I practically sit in your lap when we watch Constantine and I don't share those cookies with anyone else, you know."

"No one else will eat those cookies, you know," Duo muttered, but he was blushing. "And you don't sit in my lap - I mean you could, if you wanted to, but you don't."

They stared at each other.

"About those plans we don't have for tomorrow night?" Duo asked him.

"What about them?"

"You want to… not have plans together? Say ten o'clock, in the common room? We could watch some Constantine, share some of your completely non-fire-causing cookies and you could sit in my lap? Or not my lap but maybe we can work something out?"

Duo looked hopeful and hesitant.

"Your not plans sound suspiciously like plans."

"Do they sound like plans you'd be interested in sharing?"

Trowa shrugged.

"Yeah. I'm interested."

Duo smirked.

"Great. I… I'll see you then?"

Trowa nodded and Duo held his gaze and Trowa felt his heart do that weird thing again.


End file.
